Small Screen: WGA Strike Continues, Pasifika Entertainment Advancement Komiti Panel Discusses 'AAPI'
Angela bassett - 9-1-1/ABC
Broadcast: After six seasons on Fox, police drama 9-1-1 will be moving to ABC. The series, starring Angela Basset, Peter Krause and Jennifer Love Hewitt, follows police officers, firefighters and 9-1-1 dispatchers in their dramatic and often harrowing jobs. The network hop comes as Fox is increasingly focused on owning or co-owning its content. Craig Erwich, president of Disney Television Group, says of the move,
“Thanks to the creative drive of [creators] Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Tim Minear, as well as the talented cast, 9-1-1 has been one of the most defining and original dramas on network television over the last six seasons and we are honored to bring it to the esteemed group of series on ABC.”
CBC’s Run The Burbs will see Nelu Handa take over showrunning duties along with Jennica Harper for Season 3 of the comedy. The series was renewed ahead of its second season finale, with Season 3 planned for a winter 2024 broadcast. Handa and harper have worked together before, teaming up on three seasons of Bell Media’s JANN. Handa wrote Seasons 1 and 2 of Run the Burbs, and was the recipient of a Peabody Award for her work on Season 1 of CBC and Max’s Sort Of. She won a Canadian Screen Award for best writing on The Baroness Von Sketch Show in 2021, and was one of six participants named to the second year of CBC, BIPOC TV & Film and CFC’s Showrunner Catalyst Program in February. Run The Burbs follows the Phams, a Vietnamese-South Asian-Canadian family living in the suburbs of the fictional Canadian city Rockridge. The show was co-created by Andrew Phung of Kim’s Convenience, who also stars opposite Rakhee Morzaria as the central couple. Of the series, Handa says:
“I’m proud of the stories we get to tell. Exploring the experiences of a modern Canadian couple with rich cultural backgrounds is both very rewarding personally and relatable to so many viewers who are excited to see themselves reflected on Canadian television.”
The last episode of 9-1-1 to be carried by Fox will air on May 15.
In an eleventh-hour move, CBS has confirmed the renewal of procedural drama S.W.A.T. for a seventh and final season. After both cast and fan outrage over the series’ previously announced cancellation, talks between CBS and S.W.A.T. studio Sony Pictures continued to negotiate an additional season before the show’s demise. On Monday, it was announced that the series would indeed return for a 13-episode final season on CBS. Amy Reisenbach, President, CBS Entertainment, and Katherine Pope, President, Sony Pictures Television Studios, said in a joint statement:
“We have listened to our viewers and their outpouring of passion for S.W.A.T. and we have reached an agreement to renew it for a final season of 13 episodes to air during the 2023-2024 broadcast year. S.W.A.T. has aired for six seasons on CBS and garnered a devoted following. We are pleased that we found a way to bring it back and give closure to the show’s storylines and characters, which audiences deserve. Once again, we appreciate the talents and efforts of the cast, writers, producers and crew and everyone who has contributed to the success of S.W.A.T.”
Star Shemar Moore had previously expressed his annoyance at the show’s cancellation on his Instagram account, saying in a video,
“Its all about money, y’all. They said we’re canceled, but guess what: I don’t think we’re done. CBS is either gonna wake up and realize they made a mistake, [or] Sony is gonna do their math and realize that this is not the right move. I hope we can have a kumbaya and come back together and continue this show because it’s a good time for families across the world.”
The rare decision to reverse a show’s cancellation comes after Sony said it was not willing to renew S.W.A.T. at a flat license fee. CBS agreed to up the license fee, though this offer came with the network taking a cut of the order. As talks continue on this front, fans can rest assured that after part 2 of the Season 6 finale on May 19, another season is coming. Executive producer and showrunner Shawn Ryan shared an image on Twitter celebrating the discussion, featuring a doctored image of Harry Truman holding aloft the famous “Dewey Defeats Truman” story on the front page of the Chicago Daily Tribune after his win.
Streaming: Max original animated series Clone High will debut May 23, the same day of the HBO Max-Discovery+ combined product launches. The show, taking the same name as the 2000s MTV hit, follows teenage clones of Joan of Arc, Cleopatra, Mahatma Gandhi, and US Presidents Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy as it plays on classic teen drama tropes. Will Forte will voice Abe and Nicole Sullivan will voice Joan, along with Phil Lord, Chris Miller, Christa Miller, Donald Faison and Judah Miller also voicing characters. The show is executive produced by Lord, Chris Miller, Bill Lawrence, Erica Rivinoja, Erik Durbin, Judah Miller, Corey Campodonico, Alex Bulkley and Jeff Ingold.
Creator Shonda Rhimes has opened up about the possibility of a second season of Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story. The prequel to Netflix’s hit Bridgerton was billed as a limited series, but Rhimes told reporters,
“There have been questions, but I’m not having conversations about it yet. I could live with [protagonist Queen] Charlotte and George forever, but we told a very specific, closed-ended story that I think is a complete tale of this complicated, imperfect love. But I’m not ruling anything out because I never know.”
India Amarteifio portrays a young Queen Charlotte in the prequel, with Corey Mylchreest as George and Arsema Thomas as young Agatha. Thomas says she greatly enjoyed playing Agatha, telling reporters,
“I never thought I could love like this until I had my own child. I feel like I gave birth, and Shonda Rhimes is her daddy. I am the mommy. It would be amazing to inhabit that space again. . . [I]f I do get a call for doing it again, I will take it.”
Paramount+ has released a title and first-look photos for upcoming espionage thriller Special Ops: Lioness. The series, based on a real-life CIA program, will star Nicole Kidman, Zoe Saldaña, Laysla De Oliveira and Morgan Freeman. Lioness follows Cruz Manuelos (De Oliveira), a coarse and passionate Marine recruited to the CIA’s Lioness Engagement Team to help infiltrate and bring down a terrorist organization. Saldaña plays Joe, the station chief, who trains, manages, and leads her undercover operatives. The series also stars regulars LaMonica Garrett, James Jordan, Stephanie Nur, and Hannah Love Lanier.Michael Kelly. Taylor Sheridan, David C. Glasser, Zoe Saldaña, Nicole Kidman, Ron Burkle, Bob Yari, David Hutkin, Jill Wagner, Geyer Kosinski, Michael Malone and John Hillcoat executive produce.
Actress Freida Pinto has been cast on Season 2 of Surface at Apple. Pinto plays Grace, the fiancé of Quinn (Phil Dunster), who becomes “conflicted about what she’s really signing up for” by marrying him. Pinto is best known to American audiences for her role in Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire, and has also appeared in Trishna, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Hillbilly Elegy, and Knight of Cups. She is also a producer, currently working on The Henna Artist and Unbecoming, Dressed in Dreams under production company Freebird Films.
Jim Lee - Arturo Holmes
Industry: Former Publisher and CCO of DC Jim Lee has been promoted to President of the comic book giant. Lee, an artist, writer, and editor, will continue in his duties as Publisher, but will now lead efforts to integrate DC’s character portfolio across the Warner Bros. Discovery umbrella. Lee was born in Seoul, South Korea, and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. He received a BA in Psychology from Princeton University and began his career at Marvel Comics, where his work on the X-Men franchise still holds the all-time single-issue sales record. Lee joined DC in 1998, and has overseen the record-breaking Rebirth comic line and The New 52 initiative. He was also part of the team to revamp the costumes for Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman.
UP Entertainment has announced the addition of two more subscription video-on-demand (VOD) services, GaitherTV Plus and AspireTV Plus. AspireTV Plus, from the African American targeted AspireTV channel, launches this fall featuring lifestyle and entertainment content along with movies, series, and independent films. The AspireTV linear channel was founded in 2012 by Magic Johnson and purchased by UP in 2019. GaitherTV will center around music content, offering full-length concerts and specials, series, documentaries, early premieres of performances and shows, and exclusive behind-the-scenes interviews with artists. GaitherTV will run audiences $4.99. GaitherTV and AspireTV will be added to the $5.99/month UP Faith & Family SVOD package. Gospel Music Hall of Fame member Bill Gaither says of the new offerings,
“UP is a leader in presenting family-friendly entertainment with relevant, engaging platforms to households everywhere. We are looking forward to sharing GaitherTV Plus in new ways through this new partnership with UP Entertainment.”
Eight CW stations owned by CBS will go independent beginning in September. Employees were told on Friday that WPSG Philadelphia (DMA #4), WUPA Atlanta (DMA #6), KBCW San Francisco (DMA #10), KSTW Seattle (DMA #12), WTOG Tampa-St. Petersburg (DMA #13), WKBD Detroit (DMA #14), KMAX Sacramento (DMA #20) and WPCW Pittsburgh (DMA #26) will drop their affiliations with The CW. After the changes go into effect, Paramount will own 14 CBS-branded stations and 13 independent stations. President and co-head of CBS News and Stations says that the company will program the stations with other Paramount content and pursue sports deals. In a statement, McMahon said,
“We look forward to reimagining these stations as independents while leveraging the considerable value of their prime-time real estate in each of the markets. It’s an exciting time to look at new opportunities to add local programming, including live sports, and shows from across the Paramount Global brands. We are also grateful to have been part of The CW for 17 memorable years and wish our partners at Nexstar continued success.”
The CW is currently majority owned by Nexstar, with Paramount and WBD owning 12.5% stakes each. CBS plans to “strategically pursue” sports deals, such as those made by Scripps and the Las Vegas Golden Knights, or Gray TV and the Phoenix Suns. Regional sports networks have been struggling in recent years, and some local TV stations have sought to cut deals bringing MLB, NBA, and NHL games to their programming. The stations will have more freedom to air live games during primetime when they go independent. Nextar recently signed a deal with LIV Golf for its CW stations but decided not to carry the matches (likely due to the company’s relationship with the PGA Tour.) Nextar said in a statement,
“Since our acquisition of The CW Network last October, we have known that Paramount Global might transition the network affiliations of eight of its company-owned stations later this year. We are prepared for this possibility and confident that The CW Network will continue reaching 100 percent of U.S. television households without interruption. Paramount’s decision affects a limited portion of The CW’s nationwide reach, and we have already received multiple expressions of interest from station groups hoping to deepen their relationship with The CW by aligning more of their stations with the network.”
Harry & Meghan producer Neha Shastry has signed with CAA. Shastry produced the acclaimed Vice News coverage of Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the ensuing war in Eastern Ukraine. She has received a Dupont, an Emmy, and a Peabody. She produced Stacey Abrams’ All In: The Fight For Democracy, which was shortlisted for an Academy Award and named Best Documentary by the Hollywood Critics Association, African American Film Critics Association, and Alliance of Women Film Journalists. She also produced the Emmy-nominated Convergence for Netflix and was chosen to participate in the company’s first Nonfiction Director Fellowship from 2021-2022. The Fellowship led to her partnership with Liz Garbus on Harry & Meghan, which went on to open as Netflix’s biggest documentary debut to date. Shastry has also co-directed The Murdochs: Empire of Influence for CNN and Max with The New York Times. She is currently working on The Ruling Class, a series about American billionaires which premieres on EPIX this year.
Fina Lamptey has departed as Director of UK Features at Netflix. She joined the streamer in October of 2020 from her own Fruit Tree Media to identify books, theatre projects, and other media to develop into feature films in the UK market. In her time with Netflix, Lampey greenlit projects like Sebastián Lelio’s The Wonder, Babak Anvari’s I Came By, and Daniel Kaluuya’s The Kitchen. Lampey is the latest in a series of high-ranking Netflix executives to leave the European arm of the company as they restructure their European content business. The company has not released a statement.
As studios and streamers continue to doggedly pursue the remake, the prequel, the sequel, and the spinoff, Nicole Dow has other ideas. Dow, the head of TV for Genius Entertainment, is more interested in original content. She breaks down Genius’ development slate into three categories: kids and family, young adults, and new adult. “New adult” is a somewhat underexplored category, having come about only within the last decade and a half. The genre covers the “emerging adult generation,” ages 18-29, with titles like Colleen Hoover’s It Ends With Us and Casey McQuiston’s Red, White, & Royal Blue. Dow says of the genre,
“It’s the first foray into the world where your ego comes smashing into reality, or the cringe-worthy stuff that happens from making bad choices because you just don’t have the experience. That’s what Marsai [Martin] has been watching for a few years now because when you’re 14,15, you’re not really watching shows of 14, 15 year olds. You’re watching one bump up. So, when we were just talking about stories that she would like to produce — it was not ignoring the YA at all — but it just seems to be just a smidge easier to have the girls be 18 to 22 as a protagonist.”
Though not an “IP happy” executive, Dow thinks the idea of YA books and novels should be more prevalent in television, which she acknowledges may be a tough sell. “When we have ideas that come from the purview of a young adult or a girl that’s 13 to 19 years old and they happen to be a person of color,” she explains, “having to convince the powers that be that this is an actual story that needs to get told is still a rough road.” Dow, who started her career as a producer at Common’s Freedom Road, has spent her time in the industry telling Black stories that center joy rather than trauma. She says,
“When you tell [YA] from the point of view of a black girl or brown girl, the road gets more and more narrow because we don’t do trauma, we don’t do PTSD. . . . Our road closes from here. We keep just narrowing it, because of all the things that we won’t do.”
Genius’ first foray into Dow’s specific vision comes with Saturdays, a series following young Paris Johnson (Danielle Jalade) and her roller-skating friends. The series also stars Omar Gooding Jr., Golden Brooks, Daria Johns, and Peyton Basnight. The show spotlights not just the race and appearances of its protagonists, but their friendship. Dow is enthusiastic about the idea of a series spotlighting friendships between young girls:
“For so long, I think Hollywood has done a job of just showing girls relationships [and then] throw[ing] a boy in the middle and be[ing] like, fight over the boys. I’m just like, ‘you guys don’t know, girls at all.’ Because if you did, you would know that boys are like number 87 on the list of things that they’re talking about. We wanted to have a show where we’re showing the love story between girls because these are the relationships that inform women and who they’re going to be as they get older. These are the ones that basically fuel you and push you and encourage you. It’s that love that you go to and seek when you’re in trying times, when you’re second guessing yourself.”
Saturdays is currently available on Disney Channel.
The Pasifika Entertainment Advancement Komiti held a May 4th panel in downtown Los Angeles to discuss the future of Pasifika storytelling. PEAK co-founder and executive director Kristian Fanene Schmidt centered the question, “Should the AA [Asian American] be separated from the PI [Pacific Islander] in AAPI?” The consensus was a hesitant “yes:” though representation of both groups in the acronym still has miles to go in Hollywood, panelists emphasized that the sheer number of different cultures held beneath the “PI” umbrella should separate it from the equally numerous cultures encompassed by “AA.” Freddie Gutierrez, who writes for Nickelodeon’s That Girl Lay Lay, recalled a Writer’s Guild meeting where he felt excluded as a Pacific Islander.
“[A]t the Writer’s Guild meeting, there was an Asian writer who walked up on the question side and said, ‘I’m Asian, I’m an Asian American writer, and it’s Asian American month,’ and I screamed out, ‘What about the PIs? She looked [up] and she just kept on going. That kind of sums it up in a sense. Sometimes we include the AAs, but it doesn’t feel like they include us a lot. It feels like we’re always left out.”
PEAK co-founder Dana Ledoux Miller agreed.
“I really feel strongly that there should be more of us and there should be more of us working and telling stories, not just . . . about who we are from our culture, but we should be able to walk into any room that other people have traditionally been allowed to walk into and be a part of that because we bring something different. We have a different lens, inherently, in who we are and that’s important.”
Schmidt emphasized the importance of allyship with other underrepresented groups in Hollywood. “We’re all fighting for ourselves and for the people we know and to have a little piece of the pie,” she said. “I feel like the AAPI moniker almost pits us against each other, like there’s only so much, and we can’t all have it.” She is hesitant about the idea of separating AA and PI:
“My hesitation in separating the AA from PI isn’t because I don’t feel like we should have our own space. I obviously believe that. . . But it’s politics, and there’s money, and we want some of that money, and we deserve some of that money so that we can further our own programs. Right now, that falls under that larger category, and I don’t want us to miss out because we’re angry.”
Panelists from many sides of the industry shared their thoughts on separation or unification of the acronym and its cultures. Kerry Warkia, a Melanesian producer known for her films Waru and Vai, said,
“I think it’s about us not feeling like we have been locked out of storytelling and not feeling like we have ridiculous standards set from people who don’t come from our communities. That’s what it is to me, to be able to embrace the spectrum of storytelling, of our humanity, and to be able to dive into that in whatever way we want to tell it[.]”
Insecure’s Yvonne Orji has signed a two-year first-look deal with Sony Pictures Television under which the Emmy nominee will develop scripted drama and comedy for cable and streaming. The actress, comedian, writer, and author may also star in some projects she develops. Orji is best known for her role as Molly in Issa Rae’s Insecure, which landed her an Emmy nomination. She also appears in The Blackening, Vacation Friends and Vacation Friends 2, and Stronger, currently in development at Netflix. Of her deal, Orji said:
“I’m so excited to be partnering with Sony. From the first meeting with Katherine Pope and the rest of her amazing executive team, I knew this was the right home for me. They got my vision immediately and were genuinely enthusiastic about the stories I wanted to tell that bridge the diaspora.”
Paramount’s Streaming Data & Marketing Group has named Puja Vohra as executive vice president of consumer marketing for Paramount+ and Showtime. In her new role, Vohra will oversee brand, media, and program marketing for the two outlets. As Paramount integrates Showtime into their streaming service Paramount+, rebranding the pay TV channel to “Paramount+ With Showtime,” several executive swaps have already occurred. The rebrand will likely occur in late 2023, though no official date has been announced.
Writers Guild of America
Strike Watch: As the latest in a wave of productions to be halted by protests relating to the WGA/AMPTP negotiations, Apple TV+’s Loot has paused production due to picketing. While filming its second season, Loot’s studio Universal Television was swarmed by WGA picketers, causing production at its Bel-Air location to halt. The series stars Maya Rudolph as Molly Novak, a billionaire whose husband of 20 years betrays her, leading to a very public spiral and tabloid gossip. As Novak speeds towards rock bottom, a leader of Novak’s charity foundation named Sofia Salinas (Michaela Jaé Rodriguez) must plead with her to stop feeding the bad press. Together with Novak’s assistant Nicholas (Kim Booster), Salinas and the team help Molly rediscover herself through giving back. On the fourth day of the WGA strike, Loot has joined Hacks, Billions, Unstable, and The Venery of Samantha Bird in the list of productions to be shut down.
It’s official: the WGA writers strike is now having an effect on overall deals. Not even a week into the work stoppage, studios have begun sending out notices of suspension to writer/producers who are under overall and first-look agreements. Among those to have sent the letters are Warner Bros. Television, Universal Studio group, CBS Studios, 20th Television, ABC Signature and HBO. One HBO employee tweeted that he will spend another day on the picket lines after he was notified by HBO that, “after 25 years of writing television for [the company],” he received a call that his deal was suspended. Amazon Studios has also started to send letters to those under overall and first-look deals as of this week. Netflix remains a holdout, though they and other streamers are reportedly considering the move as early as next week. Some studios, namely Disney and WB, will continue to pay producers with series currently in production; CBS Studios did not suspend term deals for writers and producers who had received letters advising the continuation of “non-writing” producer duties, while Amazon Studios also has caveats for those duties. At a meeting on Saturday, studios informed writer/producers that they will expect producing services to continue during the strike, with showrunners firing back that there is “no non-writing aspect” to their roles. While suspending deals is not uncommon practice during a strike, many fear potential termination evocative of studios’ cutting of overall and other producing deals during the 2007-2008 writers strike. All letters sent out thus far have ended with similar language reserving to the Producer all rights and remedies/not waiving rights “as a matter of law or equity” or ”at law or in equity.” Sources stress, however, that for writers/producers with whom studios wish to continue their work, the studios will extend the time of suspension on the back end of their deals.